Tracking
Tracking is a feature in all of the MCTeams servers that involves constructing and arranging tracking blocks to emit Euclidean planes with intent to find a player's location, which can often lead to finding their base. Constructing and arranging tracking blocks is executed to create a tracker, a device that "tracks," or emits Euclidean planes and records information about player location within the planes. History Tracking was invented on the server MCPvP by hclewk. The purpose he intended it for was to locate where a player is so it would make the game more interesting. Concepts 'Narrowing' "Narrowing" is the process of tracking a player getting closer and closer to his or her coordinates. On a vanilla tracker, this is done by moving the diamond block closer or further to the gold block. Using other types of trackers such as stacked or layered trackers shortens the time needed to narrow a player's coordinates by having multiple diamond blocks and arms which become shorter or longer each time, thus narrowing the player by a fixed amount each time the tracker moves down a leg. 'Manual narrowing' 'Stacking' 'Layering' 'Temporary tracking' Often referred to as "temp tracking," temporary tracking was deemed as useless or ineffective in prior maps. However, players soon realized practical uses for temporary tracking and used them to prevent themselves from being "tracked" whilst waiting for a player to go to a warp so they can narrow them further. Temporary trackers are made using obsidian as the diamond block, cobblestone as the obsidian and stone as the gold block. Temporary trackers will disappear after their first use. 'Types of coordinates' 'Construction and usage' #Place a beginning tracking block. #''Either 2.1 or 2.2 may be chosen. 2.1 creates an arm by including the use of arm tracking blocks while 2.2 does not create an arm.'' ## Create an arm by placing an arm tracking block adjacently next to the beginning tracking block. Multiple arm tracking blocks may be placed, but they must be placed in the equivalent direction the arm is directing towards to accumulate multiple tracking regions within the same tracker. ## Place an ending tracking block adjacently next to the beginning tracking block. # If 2.1 has been completed, place an ending tracking block adjacently next to the final arm tracking block of the arm of the tracker. The ending tracking block must be placed in the equivalent direction the arm is directing towards to complete the tracker arm and allow for the tracker to wholly function. # Use the commands or to retrieve information on the existence of players within the tracker's emitted tracking regions. To construct a tracker, a player needs to place a beginning tracking block with an arm placed adjacently and rectilinear in any direction followed by an ending tracking block at the end of the arm, which consists of a collection of arm tracking blocks. Trackers do not always contain arm tracking blocks and are just only ended with proceeding ending tracking blocks adjacently placed alongside the tracker's beginning tracking block. To find a player's coordinates, commands must be used to receive information about players that are located within emitted tracking regions that the tracker emits. To execute such commands, the player must stand on the beginning block of the tracker and either type , or . Tracking region 'Properties' 'Emission and accumulation' 'Variable and non-variable tracking regions' Tracker 'Tracking block' 'Beginning tracking block' A beginning tracking block in trackers is a block that allows players to operate trackers and begins an arm. Beginning tracking blocks enable players to receive information about emitted tracking regions created from arm tracking blocks by producing tracking data, outputted script that accords information about which direction another player is located on the map on emitted tracking regions. The concurrently two commands that exist within the extremities of tracking can only be successfully retrieved by standing on a beginning tracking block. There are two types of beginning tracking blocks, in which are used accordingly on two types of trackers based on durability. Of the two, permanent trackers use blocks of diamonds, and temporary trackers use obsidian. Beginning tracking blocks that are used as blocks of diamonds can be crafted by placing diamonds in all slots of the crafting grid interface, and obsidian can be obtained by locating it as a naturally spawned block in a chunk or by manipulating water and lava by pouring water over a stationary lava source. A concept of tracking called narrowing uses beginning tracking blocks by placing multiple beginning tracking blocks in close relative proximity to each other or by moving placed beginning tracking blocks to resolutely reduce the size of a tracking region in which a player has been located to. 'Arm tracking block' An arm tracking block in trackers is a block that emits a tracking region and composes an arm, resulting in its name. Arm tracking blocks create tracking regions that are infinite in length and finite in width, being 25 blocks wide. Multiple arm tracking blocks in an arm start accumulating tracking regions by manipulating where they begin, in which they start after the end of preceding tracking regions and end before the beginning of another tracking region if there is such emitted by an additional arm tracking block. By accumulating tracking regions, the total finite distance is extended by multiples of 25. For example, an arm contains 10 arm tracking blocks; therefore, it will emit an accumulated set of tracking regions that contain a finite width of 250 blocks because 10 times 25 is 250, excluding the emitted tracking region of an ending tracking block, and a length of infinity that allows the tracking regions to cross a whole axis of the map. Arm tracking blocks emit variable tracking regions. There are two types of arm tracking blocks, in which are used on two types of trackers based on durability. Permanent trackers utilize obsidian while temporary trackers use cobblestone. Obsidian can be obtained by mining it through locating it as a naturally spawned block or through manipulating water and lava by allowing water to flow over a stationary lava source, and cobblestone can be obtained by mining it through locating it as a naturally spawned block, mining stone with a pickaxe that does not accommodate the Silk Touch enchantment, or by manipulating water and lava by allowing lava to be introduced to water. 'Ending tracking block' An ending tracking block in trackers is a block that completes an arm, composes an arm, and emits a tracking region. Ending tracking blocks are absolutely equivalent to the arm tracking blocks in that they both emit tracking regions and compose an arm except that these tracking blocks are needed to complete an arm and allow the tracker to fully function in terms of enabling access to tracking commands. As in arm tracking blocks, ending tracking blocks also emit tracking regions that are infinite in length and finite in width, being 25 blocks, and behave equivalently when accumulating and emitting. Two types of ending tracking blocks exist and correspond to the two types of trackers based on durability. Permanent trackers require a block of gold as an ending tracking block while temporary trackers incorporate stone. Blocks of gold can be obtained through crafting by placing gold in all of the slots of the crafting grid interface, and stone can be harvested through mining it as a naturally spawned block with a pickaxe that includes the Silk Touch enchantment, by manipulating water and lava in terms of introducing lava on the top face of water, or through smelting cobblestone in a furnace to obtain stone as a smelting product. 'Arm' 'Way' 'Adjacency' The types of adjacency of a tracker describes the adjacency or non-adjacency of different properties of individual trackers in a tracker. This adjacency is used to classify types of trackers. As the use of types of trackers is preferential, the methods of adjacency are, thus, preferential also. Some individuals consider, for example, adjacently stacking the beginning blocks of individual trackers in a tracker for easier calculation of player coordinates. In specificity, types of trackers are most notably popularized and classified based on their adjacency of their beginning tracking blocks, ending tracking blocks, and combinations of both. Therefore, it can be noted that players who have popularized types of trackers and have been named after for their designs have essentially popularized different methods, in which has been noted to be preferential, of adjacently or non-adjacently placing beginning tracking blocks and ending blocks in different combinations in their tracker designs. 'Durability' Trackers exist with a property of durability that is exhausted through the quantity of uses, which is determined through the amount of times in which a player uses the command or on such a tracker. Currently, there are two types of trackers that differ in durability in which are as the proceeding: permanent trackers and temporary trackers, or informally known as temp trackers. Consequently, these are used in different systematic methodologies, or tracking systems, to efficiently engage in the field of tracking. The names of such trackers are determined by the amount of uses a player can execute. Permanent trackers accommodate an infinite durability and can be used infinitely while temporary trackers, contrarily, are capable of only one use. The identification of these trackers is most notably signified through the types of tracking blocks they use with the beginning block, arm block, and ending block in permanent trackers being, respectively, a block of diamond, obsidian, and a block of gold and with temporary trackers being, in respective order, obsidian, cobblestone, and stone. Other properties of trackers are not affected by a tracker's durability as types of trackers in terms of their durability essentially differ only in the types of constituent tracking blocks they correspondingly use. 'People' Classification of trackers 'Classified by narrowing methods' 'Vanilla trackers' 'Stacked trackers' 'Horizontal trackers' 'Flat-head trackers' 'Double flat-head trackers' 'Layered trackers' 'Vertical trackers' 'Double vertical trackers' 'Inverted vertical trackers' 'Double inverted vertical trackers' 'Stacked and layered trackers' 'Studies trackers' 'Huntslo trackers' 'Classified by types of emitted tracking regions' 'Variable trackers' 'X trackers' 'Z trackers' 'Non-variable trackers' 'Corner trackers' '2-way trackers' '3-way trackers' '4-way trackers' Tracking system Commands * - Outputs the tracking data of the tracker, showing the existence of all players within tracking regions the tracker emits. * - Outputs the tracking data of the tracker that specifically shows the existence of player name within tracking regions the tracker emits.